From watermelon to the family tree... strange gifts for Putin on his birthday

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From a farm tractor to a musical instrument bearing his family tree, Vladimir Putin's gifts go beyond traditional congratulations, telling tales of leaders' friendships and how countries choose to identify themselves.

With the Russian President turning seventy-four on October 7, the strangest of these gifts have returned to the forefront, between a crystal crocodile, a bed sheet, and a miniature horse.

The list includes gifts he has received over the years, as well as others prepared to celebrate his occasion this year. Despite their different values ​​and sizes, they are united by the ability to transform congratulations into a striking scene, sometimes carrying a personal message or a political compliment, and leaving behind a story longer lasting than the ceremony of presenting it.

The most recent of these initiatives, craftsmen in the Russian region of Tver made the "Gusli" stringed instrument from wood, and decorated its front with Putin's family tree and scenes from the region from which his ancestors descend, in a choice that evokes his roots through music and traditional craft.

According to a report published by the Russian “360” website, the makers of the machine wanted their gift to express the president’s connection to the land of his ancestors.

On his seventieth birthday in 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko chose a certificate allowing Putin to obtain a tractor, and presented it during a meeting of leaders of countries from the former Soviet Union in St. Petersburg. The choice bore the imprint of the Belarusian industry, which has been proud of producing tractors since the Soviet era. On the same occasion, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon gave Putin a watermelon, which was later transferred to children’s centers, according to a report published by Euronews Romania, so that the agricultural gift found its way to other beneficiaries.

Twenty years before that, then-Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin gave him a crystal crocodile on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Voronin linked his choice to the idea that the crocodile does not move backwards, giving the statue a meaning that evokes persistence and moving forward, in a political compliment formulated in a funny way.

In 2017, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved the congratulations to a more private space, when he presented Putin with a quilt cover bearing a picture of them shaking hands, to celebrate his 65th birthday.

The design combined the Colosseum in Rome and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, placing two famous landmarks behind the image of the two friends. Berlusconi brought the gift to Russia during his visit to celebrate the occasion, and the familiar handshake at political meetings turned into a home souvenir of a long personal relationship.

The list was not devoid of animals; In 2005, Putin received a miniature Falabella horse, called Vadik, whose height at the shoulders, at the time of his gift, reached about 54 centimeters.

In 2008, he received a female tiger cub, which was later moved to a safari park in Gelendzhik. Foreign leaders also gave him dogs, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who presented him with two Pongsan dogs in 2024. Between a machine that evokes ancestors and a tractor that reflects a national industry, the gifts reveal a different side of the Russian president’s relationships. Its strangeness gives it a presence in the news, while the stories of its gifters give it meanings that go beyond its material value.

Thus, congratulations become an occasion to express friendship, identity and memory, in ways that extend from the fields to the bedrooms.